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Melodye Feldman
Founder and Executive Director
melodye@s-c-g.org
Melodye Feldman is the founder and executive director of the internationally known grass-roots organization Seeking Common Ground. She has over 25 years of non-profit experience primarily working with women and children.
In the late 70’s, Melodye worked as a rape crisis counselor for the Cambridge Women’s Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was a cooperative feminist center run by volunteers. In the early 80’s Melodye moved to Colorado and became the executive director of the Longmont Coalition Against Domestic Violence and was a board member of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). During her board tenure NCADV was instrumental in lobbying the U.S. Congress to draft laws that acknowledged domestic abuse as a crime and in training law enforcement officers to respond to domestic violence calls appropriately. Melodye was also a consultant for the US Department of Justice as a trainer for Native American law enforcement agencies on Reservations in North Dakota.
Melodye's first trip to Israel was in the late 1960’s. In 1987 she witnessed the beginning of the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) and although well versed in the Israeli/Jewish perspective of the conflict, began to explore the Palestinian perspective. This led her to meet with both Israeli and Palestinian women working for peace and reconciliation of the conflict. Melodye has spent extensive time in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza meeting with government officials from both sides as well as meeting and interviewing many private Palestinian and Israeli families, peace activists, and human rights organizations.
In 1993 after the historic Oslo peace agreement Melodye co-founded Seeking Common Ground and the program Building Bridges for Peace (BBfP). The program brings together Palestinian, Israeli, and American young women and men for a summer intensive in the United States and a yearlong follow-up program in their home communities in the U.S. and the Middle East. Based on a female paradigm of peacebuilding, the BBfP program is a model for developing young people's leadership development. To date as the violence continues to escalate in the Middle East, the BBfP program continues to thrive with a waiting list of Palestinian, Israeli, and American youth wanting to attend the program. SCG is partnering with the Negev Institute for the Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED), and Israeli non-profit organization dedicated to advancing peace through civil society work.
In 2000, Melodye co-founded the Face to Face / Faith to Faith program, an interfaith program based on the BBfP model that brings together teen women and men from Israel, South Africa, Northern Ireland, and the U.S. to address the role that religion plays in waging war and making peace in the world.
In 2007, SCG introduced another new leadership development and peacebuilding programs for Denver teens specifically, the Building Bridges for Peace-Denver. In partnership with Denver Public Schools and in consultation with the national organization, Facing History and Ourselves, SCG is providing Denver teens with the opportunity to become leaders in building more peaceful and just communities, beginning at home.
Melodye holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Philosophy of Education and Human Services from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, and an MSW from the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.
Melodye lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband Josh Gould, their son Coby, and their golden retriever Bizkit, goldendoodle Choco, and her new cat, Bella.
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Agatha S. Hultquist
Director of Communications & Special Projects
agatha@s-c-g.org
Agatha has a strong commitment to working for the advancemnt of peace between communities in conflict.
Agatha earned an MA in International Studies, with concentrations in Conflict Resolution and the Middle East from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies in June of 2005. Agatha’s research focused on various aspects of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, including Palestinian political development, the evolution of Israeli and Palestinian educational systems, and international and humanitarian law as applied to the conflict. Agatha’s thesis explored the dual evolution of the Palestinian political system “inside” and “outside” Palestine from 1967-present.
Agatha lives in Denver with her husband, Chuck, and their two adopted cats, Kitty One and Kitty Two.
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Erin Breeze
Associate Director, SCG
erin@s-c-g.org
Erin holds a Master of Arts in Peace and Development Studies from the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she studied as an inaugural George J. Mitchell scholar. Erin's thesis explored the challenges political leadership faced in their efforts to work together in Northern Ireland’s first coalition government to implement the historic 1998 agreement. To comprehend the issues that posed the greatest obstacles to full implementation – namely disarmament, decommissioning, policing reform, and the varying public perceptions of the new government - Erin interviewed key political players including John Hume, Gerry Adams, Monica McWilliams, Ian Paisley, Jr., and David Trimble.
It was while working toward a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs at the University of Colorado at Boulder that Erin’s interest in Northern Ireland began. She was initially drawn by a desire to understand the role the US played as a facilitator of the peace process. Erin’s awareness of how collaborative strategies involving governments, international organizations and civil society could transform conflict further deepened during her time abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, where she interned at the International Peace Bureau and the Hague Appeal for Peace.
Erin has a deep commitment to public service. In 1996, she spent a year as a volunteer for AmeriCorps, the federally funded national service initiative. In 1998, as an intern for the Youth Volunteer Corps in Santa Rosa, California, Erin designed an educational seminar to teach 7th grade students about the subject of child labor that included a service project. Most recently, she was a volunteer teacher at Denver’s The Conflict Center, where she taught anger and conflict management to youth. An advocate of service learning, Erin sees tremendous value in youth and university programs that combine learning with service to create opportunities for young people to both broaden their understanding of issues affecting their communities and develop skills to effect change.
In the fall of 2003, Erin had her first opportunity since returning from Ireland to teach a group of Americans about conflict and the Northern Ireland experience. She co-moderated a senior Honors seminar in Conflict Resolution at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. She believes it is as important for Americans to become more knowledgeable about the complexities of conflict and to build conflict resolution skills as for those living in ‘divided societies’. Erin is excited by the development of conflict resolution curriculum in American schools and the increase in peace studies programs at universities around the country. Erin sees the unique position of the US in the global community as an opportunity for the US to demonstrate the strength of diplomatic alternatives to violent conflict and the potential for multilateral approaches to peacebuilding.
Erin lives in Denver with her husband, Daniel Junge, their daughter Harper, and their dogs Chance and Mabel.
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Katie Campbell
Director of Programs
katie@s-c-g.org
Katie first came to SCG as a participant in the BBfP program in 2000 and has since served as summer staff member, program and office support, and BBfP US Home Group Coordinator, developing with the organization’s programs. When not working with SCG, Katie has been involved in education, community organizing, facilitation, and leadership in various non-profit, religious, and community contexts.
Katie graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in the History of Art. Her Senior Thesis was inspired by her study abroad at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In her thesis, Katie examined the reality of crime, its threat to the democratic consolidation of post-Apartheid South Africa, and opportunities for remedy by framing social and economic programs as crime response and prevention.
While at Bryn Mawr, Katie helped to establish the Sustained Dialogue program and worked as a Peer Mediator. Katie has also developed and facilitated children and youth programs for a summer day camp in Philadelphia and served as youth group leader at churches in Memphis. She will complete her second year as an elementary Special Education teacher as a part of the national service program Teach for America in Memphis, TN in May, 2008.
Katie believes that youth hold power as a present force of peacemaking, in addition to their potential as future leaders. Katie is excited to return to her hometown of Denver to continue her work with SCG as Director of Programs in June, 2008.
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Aviva Joffe
BBfP U.S. Home Group Leader
info@s-c-g.org
Aviva has staffed the Building Bridges for Peace summer program for four year, and is working as the U.S. Home Group Leader this year. She also co-led the BBfP-Denver enhancement trip to South Africa in March, 2008.
Aviva just completed her B.A. in Anthropology and Business from Washington University in St. Louis. She plans on working for a couple of years before returning to school for Social Work and Nonprofit Management.
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Jacquelyn Eisenberg
SCG Intern
interns@s-c-g.org
Jacquelyn grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Jacquelyn is currently a Phi Alpha Honor Student pursuing a Master of Social Work Degree and Graduate School of International Studies Global Health Certificate at the University of Denver.
She recently returned from Swaziland, Africa where she worked as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in HIV/AIDS Health Extension, focusing on women's empowerment, orphans andvulnerable children, and sustainable public health initiatives. Her previous work includes collaborating with at-risk youth in the foster care system, public relations and marketing both in private and public sectors, and teaching English in the Amazonas.
Last summer Jacuelyn worked with the United Nations Populations Fund in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina with sexual and reproductive health issues. Jacquelyn is currently completing her Concentration Year Internship with
Seeking Common Ground.
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Sara Guillermo
SCG Intern
interns@s-c-g.org
Sara is very excited to be working as an intern at SCG. She has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in legal studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). During her time at UCSC, Sara had the opportunity to spend a summer in Costa Rica. Sara participated in service learning projects, while studying about the effects of war and violence on children.
Currently, Sara is studying at the University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work. Her focus is on community work and organizing. She will earn her Master’s in Social Work in June, 2008. She is passionate about working to create a more just and peaceful society at the local, national, and global level.
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For information about internship opportunities with SCG, please contact us at info@s-c-g.org or 303.691.2393
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